After leaving Canada, I met bobby on our mutual layover in Atlanta (at which point I began drinking as much unsweetened iced tea as I could find and did not stop for a solid week- I miss it so much in the UK!) and we headed on to San Francisco.
Upon checking into our somewhat sketchy hotel, we did what I think all American expats do upon returning home, ate a ridiculous amount of food. After stuffing ourselves with things we can't get in the UK (like club sandwiches, dill pickels and rootbeer), we headed on to take in the sights of San Francisco.
mmm.. dill pickel *drool* 
Bobby, Rootbeer and American Flags- Welcome home!
First we hit up Chinatown, which, I have to say, I was a little disappointed in. It was just lots of chinese stores filled with cheaply-made chinese crap. There were some interesting grocery/herbal stores, but those were a little overwehlming. However, in order to get the true Chinatown experience, I did haggle on a "coral" necklace in one of the stores which i'm sure is not real coral and i'm sure I spent about $10 too much on.
Me in Chinatown
After Chinatown, we headed down to the water in seach of San Francisco's famous sea lions. Upon arriving at pier 39, which is where the sea lions hang out, I thought I was in for more disappointment when we didn't actually see any. However, after about 15 minutes of wandering around, finding more american food to devour, and listening for their honking, we did eventually find hordes of sea lions, all together in one tiny area. Things I learned: 1- sealions like to sleep all piled on top of one another 2- sealions are very mean 3- never ask german tourists to take your picture in front of some sort of attraction, or you'll end up with a super zoomed-in picture of your face and none of the attraction behind you. I also learned why the sealions were there, but I waited too long to blog and now i've forgotten. However, being the internet-savy blog reader that you are, i'm sure you can find it on wikipedia.
After pier 39, we headed back to the hotel and did what bobby and I do best on vacation: nap. Later that night, we met up with Lindsay, an old friend from highschool, and her fiance who now live in San Fran to watch the election results. Needless to say, as an HUGE Obama supporter, being in a uber liberal city like San Francisco for the election was amazing. We actually missed the results announcement because it was all over so fast (about 8pm west coast time) but we learned about it soon enough by all the people crying and hugging in the streets.
We started off our second day in San Fran by going in search of some much-missed Mexican Food. After about 40 minutes of wandering aimlessly, we happened upon a Chipotle-much to our extreme joy. Once again, we stuffed ourselves, and then we took a very long bus ride out to the beach. After introducing myself to the Pacific Ocean for the first time, we headed into Golden Gate Park. After wandering around the park for a bit, talking about how much we miss trees and space in london, and then realizing that the park is about 45 city blocks long, we got back on the bus the head up to the Japanese Tea Garden (which is still a park of Golden Gate Park). The Tea Garden was ok- we got some cool pictures, but you have to pay like $5 to get in, and that doesn't even include any tea!!
Us at Golden Gate Park
Japanese Tea Garden
The next day we checked out of the hotel and did a short car-tour of the rest of the major sites of San Francisco- mainly Lombard Street and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Golden Gate Bridge
We then got on the highway and headed towards Sacramento for Sarah's wedding.
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